


Home Sweet Home

by DGCatAniSiri



Category: ReBoot (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-29
Updated: 2014-06-29
Packaged: 2018-02-06 18:24:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1867839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DGCatAniSiri/pseuds/DGCatAniSiri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Back in Mainframe, Megabyte gone, Hexadecimal 'reformed'... Suddenly, Matrix finds himself without purpose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Sweet Home

The most difficult thing about coming home was finding your new place there. Matrix was uncomfortably aware of that fact every nano that he was back in Mainframe. No one seemed to know what to make of him. They knew he had been Enzo Matrix, the kid brother of Dot Matrix, who ran all over the system at jet speed and idolized Bob. But what they saw was the battle hardened, gun-toting, gruff and tough renegade. 

And he didn’t only see it in the binomes and numerals in the city. Even Bob and Dot and Phong, just about everyone who he considered his family acted that way.

And then there was the kid. The backup. The copy. The replacement. It was Enzo Matrix, alive, well, and untouched by everything from the Viral War, the game-hopping... everything that had made Matrix into the sprite he was. In some respects, he figured that they even preferred the younger version. After all, that was the Enzo Matrix that they knew. They were able to understand him. Matrix, the original-but-different, was unknown. 

He could understand it. After everything that they’d been through, some tie to what they had before Megabyte had devastated Mainframe was something that they’d easily cling to. But that didn’t make the feeling of being... adrift go away. 

After the musical that Dot and AndrAIa had practically dragged him to, he’d entered the diner, hoping to get away from anything awkward and uncomfortable, not to mention be away from Hexadecimal, even if Bob vouched for her. 

Of course, doing anything to isolate yourself during celebrations always seemed to be a beacon for people to come to drag you back to it.

And, naturally, the one who took on the position was... the backup. 

“Matrix, what are you doing just sitting over here?” it... he asked.

Focusing on some point outside the window, Matrix didn’t even look to the... child. “Drinking,” he stated, taking a sip from his I/O shot for emphasis. 

“But it’s a celebration! C’mon! Join the rest of us!”

By the User, had he ever truly been this basic? He hoped not. Perhaps the time spent trapped in the games had simply burned away that childish good nature, but he wanted to believe himself to have been capable of getting the message that the big silent guy in the corner wanted to be left alone and should be listened to. 

“Not interested,” Matrix growled out. Why weren’t Dot or Bob or even AndrAIa shooing the kid away from him? The last thing he wanted and needed was to be the babysitter for what was essentially himself.

And the kid was so blasted persistent. “But we won! You should be happy!”

That caused something in Matrix to snap. Being told that he should be happy by this... this... echo? Backup? Copy? Being told to feel something?

“Who are you to tell me how I should be feeling? You have no idea what I’ve been through, what any of us have? You weren’t in the war. You didn’t have to hop through games just to survive. You weren’t involved in anything that this is supposed to be a celebration of. You didn’t lose over half your runtime to fighting viruses or Users. You think that just because you were lucky enough to be created with the restart, that gives you the right to just push yourself into everyone’s life?” The words burst out of Matrix’s mouth without him being able to stop it. He could see what they were doing to the kid, bringing him to the brink of crying, but he hadn’t been able to stop the outpour or the fact that he’d stood up in the process of delivering his tirade.

And, once his words were out for all to hear, he could see that he’d drawn the attention of every eye in the diner. From the fearful binomes to Dot’s disappointment to Bob’s sadness to AndrAIa, looking at him with compassion mixed with displeasure. Out of all of them, she had the best understanding of what had caused his outburst, but she wasn’t able to understand what he was going through. 

Not able to take the suffocating atmosphere of the diner anymore, he stalked out the door, decompressed a zipboard and began flying aimlessly across Mainframe. 

Somehow, at some point, he found himself in Lost Angles. With Hexadecimal now reformed (Matrix still had his doubts, but Bob swore up and down that she was reformed, so, out of respect, he held his tongue), the ruins of the twin city had begun to settle into a semblance of reason. There were at least a few spots free of the sheer random chaoticness that Hex preferred, where it would loop a traveler around or send someone back the way they came if they passed through the wrong arc. Whether it was because of the virus check or Bob melding her masks, Matrix didn’t know and didn’t care. What he knew was that he would be alone without the fearful stares of the Mainframers looking upon him.

He sat on the top of a burnt out husk of a building, just staring at the sight of the restored system. He would freely admit that the sight of a Mainframe restored to the beauty and splendor it had had when he had been a small boy, before his father had destroyed the Twin City, without even the Silicon Tor marring the skyline, was truly beautiful. He was glad that Mainframe was Mainframe again, but now... Now, it seemed there was no place for him. 

“The view is nice up here, isn’t it?” Matrix turned to see AndrAIa approaching him. He hadn’t even heard her arrive, but that was the kind of thing she did. 

“It is.” It hadn’t taken Matrix long to find this spot, its view of Mainframe, pristine and restored, drawing him to it. Matrix considered it the most beautiful sight he could imagine.

For a long moment, AndrAIa was quiet, merely sitting herself down next him. “Enzo, what happened?” she asked gently, not accusing him, not being angry, just... wanting to know what was wrong.

“I... I don’t know.” He hesitated a moment, realizing that there was a reason that he knew. “He... he’s everything that I had to stop being. With the virals, the games, the war... I had to give up being that kid. And... I stopped wanting to be him. I saw him as the reason why we... why we spent all that time in the games, that if I’d been stronger, more capable, I would have been able to...” He trailed off, knowing that AndrAIa’s response was going to be to tell him that he was being foolish. He shook his head, managing to cut off her comment before she made it. “Now he’s back, running around... And it’s the Enzo everyone knew. The one that they’re used to. He has a place here.”

AndrAIa placed a hand on his shoulder. “So do you!”

He shook his head. “No I don’t, AndrAIa. You’re programmed to adapt to new situations. Me... I trained for and focused on fighting and deleting Megabyte. I trained myself to be a warrior, and nothing else. And now... Now I made it through that. I fought Megabyte, I made it home, and I’m still processing. I made it through all of that alive, and... Now I don’t know what to do with myself.”

Placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, AndrAIa smiled at him. “You live, Enzo. You find something new to do with your life, some new purpose.” She leaned in close. “There are a few things that I could think of, actually.” 

“Really?” 

“Really.” She leaned in close...

“Aren’t you two sweet?” The two of them jerked apart to see a sprite on a zipboard hovering in front of them, a gentle smirk on his face.

Both of them were surprised to see the sprite. “Goto!” Matrix exclaimed in a pleased surprise.

“What are you doing here?” AndrAIa’s reaction was more subdued, less excited to see the other sprite, but still pleased. 

“A system comes online by the name of Mainframe, after all the time you spent talking about how you wanted to make it back to this place, you think I don’t come to scope the place out?” Goto grinned.

Inevitably when a system was online, it drew traffic. And they had just helped Captain Capacitor and his crew get back to business, having rebuilt the _Saucy Mare_ and sent her on her way. Mainframe had been something of a quiet, out of the way system for most of its time since they’d learned of the wider Net, not having gotten much traffic. Clearly, sending out the software pirates caught the attention of some.

Goto had been a friend Matrix had made in one of the many systems that they’d been deposited in during their game-hopping. Matrix and AndrAIa had had a brief tiff – they had grown up in the games with no way to avoid each other or get away and cool down, so while they loved each other, occasionally, familiarity bred contempt, their tempers flared, and they’d both said something stupid that they didn’t mean – and Matrix had come across Goto. 

A mercenary by trade, he’d been there working on a black market deal, selling programs of various types to whoever would pay, he’d initially gotten Matrix’s ire up, which wasn’t a huge surprise. Matrix had overheard talk of a sale of black market programs and had intimidated his way into the sale. Goto had been willing to sell programs to anyone who came, whether or not they could genuinely handle such upgrades, just so long as they had the credits. Matrix had argued, Goto had gotten angry, there had been an exchanging of punches. 

Then he’d revealed that he had his standards when a virus had shown up, willing to pay for the entirety of his wares. Goto had refused. The virus had insisted. Things turned into a firefight, the kind that had produced a light show that had been visible across the system, which had drawn AndrAIa’s attention. By the time she got there, Matrix and Goto had dealt with the virus’s henchmen and had it sandwiched between them and their weapons, begging for mercy. 

Neither had extended it.

In thanks for his assistance, Goto had given Gun a few upgrades for free, increasing its range and effectiveness and he and Matrix had formed a friendship. AndrAIa had appreciated the help he’d offered, but she had felt a sensation of there being something that Goto hadn’t been saying to either of them, something that he found important. But the fact that he’d fought against a virus and back to back with Matrix had cemented him as someone who was deserving of respect and possibly friendship. 

Until the next cube landed, Goto had put them up, allowing them to recharge and refresh. They’d told him their story and asked for his assistance, but he’d been unable to offer anything that could get them home beyond his word to scan the information highways for word of Mainframe, find a way out there, and tell them that the three of them had survived.

Goto shook his head. “I come here, expecting I get to bring your friends here the good news that you’re out there, see if they’ve got some way to try to get you back here. So imagine my surprise when I drop your names and the local CPUs tell me where I’d probably be able to find you. So much for me being your hero. Again.”

“Again? I had that virus cornered.”

“Sure you did.”

There had always been something that had kept AndrAIa aloof from Goto, something that she’d picked up in his voice that had made her uncomfortable. But she couldn’t argue the fact that Matrix was pleased, to an extent that even she hadn’t been able to get from him. She offered him a home, a place to belong for years, but Goto... he probably represented more of a purpose than she did. She couldn’t begrudge her lover his desire for that.

Still, despite any misgivings she had, she did consider Goto a friend, and smiled at him. “It’s good to see you, Goto.”

He tossed her a nod and a smile. “You too.” He clapped his hands together. “So, it looks like I’m probably gonna be here a while. Where does someone get a bit of energy around here?”

***

Level 31 wasn’t exactly in a better state after the restart. G-Prime had been viral so long, it seemed that even with the virus scan, something dank and dreary had sunk into its primary code and made it the home of the dregs of Mainframe society. But it was just the kind of place not only that Goto would feel comfortable in, but it would also mean that Matrix wouldn’t have to deal with anyone like Dot or Bob. It was possible that Mouse might be down here, but with Ray in the system, it was likely that she was going to be busy for a while and not actually going out for a few drinks.

Giving Goto the highlights of their journey from when they’d parted ways to now took a while. Even stripping out the casual jumps to other systems, they still had a long story to tell.

“I’m not sure what gets to me more, the fact that you went into the Web, that you had a one-on-one fight with the virus who made your childhood a processing nightmare, and won, the fact that you gambled on the User to reboot the system, or that it worked,” Goto gaped.

At his word choice, AndrAIa smiled. “And we were all born anew, and rid of things barbaric.” Matrix moaned, knowing that it was going to take him dozens of nanoseconds to get that musical’s incredibly catchy lyrics out of his head. Goto was, unsurprisingly, confused at her reference. She smiled. “Sorry. There was recently a musical on what happened to us all. Lyrics were catchy.”

“I’m sorry I missed it,” Goto said, in a tone that said he really didn’t. “So, what are you two up to out here? Seems like a quiet little system.”

“It is. And for us... it’s home.” AndrAIa spoke like she was speaking for the both of them. However, Matrix was still quiet. 

And Goto noticed the silence from him. “Are you sure about that?” he asked gently.

Looking to her lover, AndrAIa gave Matrix a confused look. Mainframe had been his home first, and, though she’d found a place here, she still considered him her home more than a place. “Enzo?”

That seemed to stir him a little. “Sorry. I just... It’s weird coming home after all this time away. It’s been... difficult to feel like I belong here.”

That seemed to strike a chord with Goto. The small smirk that formed on his face was gentle, all trace of his vaguely mocking tone fading away. “Why do you think I travel the systems? It’s not just because of the thrill of travel. I’ve never really been able to stay put. Frankly, I was close to asking you about how you do that little icon switch trick last time we met,” he said, sounding unusually wistful. “The ports connected to the Net... They’re all the civilized world, and... Sometimes, that’s a little much. They’re all a safe harbor, and... I don’t know, occasionally I’d like to get away from that, live without the safety net and backups. It’s nice to have a place to call home, but... I don’t know, traveling the information highways gives more satisfaction. The freedom from it, not having to worry about other people, about how they’ll react or how they’ll take your differences, where if they don’t like you or you don’t like them, you can just leave and not feel like it’s abandoning anyone... Sometimes that’s more of a feeling of home than having some rock solid foundation under your feet.”

It wasn’t difficult for AndrAIa to see that Goto’s words struck a chord with Matrix. The life that he was describing was the kind that held appeal for him. It would let him go back to doing what he’d become used to. She knew that, just from the mention of it, Matrix felt compelled to go along with that plan and couldn’t decide if it was something that she should encourage or speak against. On the one hand, leaving Mainframe, leaving Dot, right after they’d gotten back, would be devastating to the people who were still really adjusting to the fact that he had escaped nullification. On the other, it would give Matrix a purpose, a reason for processing again. He didn’t feel like he belonged in Mainframe, not as the sprite he was, or with the system restored to a pre-viral state. AndrAIa found it hard to disagree with even the possibility of him taking Goto’s words as an offer.

She realized that, no matter what he chose, this needed to be his decision, and not something that she influenced. “You know, I think there were still some minor tears that Bob and Mouse were going to go deal with. I’m gonna go see if they need a hand.” Matrix flashed her a thankful look. She smiled and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “You two stay out of trouble.”

“Don’t make us promise that,” Goto said with a joking grin. “You know that’s our favorite pastime.” 

Knowing that Matrix would keep him from leading them into something that would damage the hard won peace for his home, AndrAIa merely rolled her eyes and gave a weary smile. 

Once she was out the door, Goto looked back to his drinking buddy. “So, where ARE we supposed to get into trouble around here?”

***

While the two did examine the seedier side of Mainframe for a short while, the simple fact was, Al’s aside, most of Mainframe was notoriously clean. The binomes who’d run the system’s black market trade under Megabyte or even before had either straightened up since the restart and were working legitimately now (the CPUs and Dot willing to let them start fresh, given that everyone who could had resisted against Megabyte) or they hadn’t had time to put their organizations back together. 

Eventually, they found themselves back in Lost Angles, staring out at the system from the tallest structure. 

Goto was leaning against the ruined wall as he looked out over Mainframe. “I can’t really picture you being satisfied out here, big guy. It’s too... peaceful. You’re a sprite of action.”

Matrix shrugged, not looking away from the view himself. “My family is here. Getting back here was what I wanted most.”

“Weren’t you really looking to get back here right at the point you left?” Goto looked to him now, examining him, as if looking for something specific. “I mean, to you, didn’t everything here stop pretty much the moment you left? That’s what you knew about this place, what you were expecting to come back to. Am I right?”

For a long moment, Matrix considered. He couldn’t deny that he hadn’t really given thought to what changes would come while he was absent from his home. Especially when Turbo had told him that the time he’d spent in the games had accelerated time for him and AndrAIa. Once he’d gotten that message, he’d started thinking of the Mainframe he’d left and not the Mainframe he’d be coming back to.

“I think I did. I mean, it wasn’t what I intended to do, but...”

“We never ‘intend’ to think a lot of things, big guy.” Goto seemed to slowly start shifting towards Matrix. “I mean, I doubt when you were a kid you intended to be what you are now.”

A renegade. A sprite without a code. The terms flew in Matrix’s head, unbidden. “No. I didn’t.” He chuckled mirthlessly. “I thought I’d grow up and become a Guardian. Fight in the games, get my own keytool, delete viruses... I got that wish, but not the way that I’d expected. I thought...” He trailed off for a moment, considering it all. “I thought that being a Guardian was the way to be a hero.”

“You wanted to be a hero? That’s... Words you’d probably delete me for saying out loud.” This time, Matrix’s chuckle had a bit of genuine good humor to it. 

“I can laugh about it. I was a naïve kid. I didn’t know what being in the position Bob was would be like. I thought he and Dot always knew everything, even when they were both confused and unsure. Even after Bob was gone... It seemed like we always managed to make it work. It wasn’t until... Until I lost that I really understood how terrifying being the hero really is. When you let down the people who are counting on you... That somehow makes it all hit home.”

Goto gave him a quiet contemplative moment to consider things before sliding into a seated position next to Matrix. “Speaking of home... Tell me the truth. You planning to stay here?”

Matrix looked to him, confused. “This is my home.”

“Yeah, and it’s online. You can come back here. But really... This place doesn’t seem like you. It’s... quiet. Peaceful. Which is nice in a place to settle down, but... Do you really know how to settle down the way you’d need to in order to... stay here? You need things you can’t get here.” He gestured to the cityscape in front of them. “This is... not you.”

The words were painful, but there was enough truth in them for Matrix to consider. He’d made it his life’s mission to delete Megabyte. While he hadn’t exactly done that, the virus had been pulled into the Web, which was the next best thing to a deletion sentence. Spending his runtime intending to do that one thing had hardened him, sharpened him into a weapon. Could he really come to adjust to staying in Mainframe, doing little more than defending it from the games and the User? Did he even need to? After all, Bob was back and Megabyte was gone and Hexadecimal seemed to have reformed... Did the system need a defender beyond Bob himself? What was his place here?

“What would you suggest?” Matrix asked, too busy considering the words Goto had offered to really focus on what he himself was saying.

Goto shrugged. “Well, we could always head out across the systems. Live as wanderers. Righting wrongs, deleting viruses, helping the hopeless... You know, the whole heroic thing. Just you and me.” 

The idea did have its appeal. But... Something seemed off. “You and me? What about AndrAIa?”

“What about her? She seems happy to be here. You want to subject her to leaving over and over again? She can settle. The two of us, though, we’re not meant to be stuck in one place.” Matrix’s bad feeling was starting to get even worse. Then Goto leaned in close. “It would just be the two of us. Would that really be so bad?” His voice was low, a soft call for Matrix to simply... let go. Give in. Listen to him. And...

At that point, something inside clicked for Matrix – Goto wanted something. Past the words, there was something else that he wanted, something more about what he was saying, some reason that he was trying this that went beyond the mere idea of running away with him, though Matrix wasn’t sure what. Regardless, Matrix reassessed Goto quickly, moving him from ‘old friend’ to ‘new threat.’

In a flash, Matrix was on his feet, Gun out and pointing at Goto. “What are you doing here, Goto?” Suddenly, all of this seemed too suspicious – Goto’s arrival, isolating him, trying to convince him to leave... What was he playing at? Was Mainframe about to be under attack?

Goto, however, didn’t seem concerned about the weapon pointing at his face. The look on his face was simply thoughtful consideration of the situation he was in. “Took it a step too far, then. Hm. Pity. You and me, out on our own, striking out and journeying the Net, two renegades, answering to no one but ourselves... Well, it would’ve been fun.” He rose to his feet, shaking his head, as if there wasn’t a weapon pointed right at him. “It’s a shame, Matrix. I was trying to help you. Guess I forgot just how stubborn you are. I should have remembered, though. Still, I suppose I just couldn’t help it. I had to give you the chance.”

“Why are you here?” Matrix gritted out. His mechanical eye began to glow an angry red.

And still, Goto didn’t seem to react to his anger, having an almost serene peace about him as he walked over and leaned against the ruined wall. “You have no idea what’s coming, Matrix. I came here in what I can generously call an attempt to spare you pain. The pain of losing everything you’d managed to gain. And the pain of fighting again and again. It all would have been over, and you’d have a new purpose.”

Not only was he nonchalant about the threat of deletion, he wasn’t making sense on top of it. “What in the net do you mean?” Goto locked eyes with him, and, suddenly, it dawned on him. There was a visible difference to his appearance. He hadn’t noticed it before, but at Goto’s temples, he could see them. 

Sickly, glowing yellow veins. The sign of infection. The sign of one virus in particular.

“Daemon.” The venom of saying the name of the virus was tempered by the realization that his friend was still in there, somewhere, under the infection, and likely screaming. Had those veins always been there, or had they only now appeared? Either way, Matrix had no doubt that he had, from the moment he’d arrived, been under Daemon’s control.

And Daemon was definitely in control right now. “There we go. You know... It wasn’t that bad, really. Oh, I fought it, naturally. What else did I know, right? Fighting back, I mean. But the Word... when I heard the Word... I stopped fighting. I knew there was no point to it, once I heard the Word. Everything suddenly became clear to me. You can’t fight the Word, and you can’t resist it. The Guardians have heard the Word, Matrix. All except one.” He gave Matrix’s icon a significant look. “You carry his code. You know why my lady wants him to hear the Word.”

Bob was the only Guardian who still had his keytool. At this point, Bob and Glitch couldn’t be separated if they wished to be. And, Matrix realized, he and AndrAIa had confirmed that they’d found Bob and brought him home. Where Daemon could get her hands on him... “If you want Bob, why’d you waste your time with me?” 

“We’re friends, Matrix. That’s reason enough for me. I could get close to you, offer you the peace of the Word, then you’d bring it back here... It’s much easier if you submit to the Word willingly. Conflict will only bring pain and suffering, and, in the end, it will all be for nothing. But I see now that that’s not going to happen. You’ll fight back. You need the struggle, the conflict. It justifies your existence. So there will be conflict. The Word will come for you soon enough. And when it does, you will listen. Resistance is futile.” He spoke with the passion of the true believer. Was there anything left of the sprite that Matrix had known, or was all that remained of Goto this shell, this echo, wearing his face? Matrix didn’t know, and he realized that he might never.

Growing tired of the discussion, realizing the circles that the conversation could loop around in, Matrix recognized that, friend or not, Goto was a threat right now. And he had one response to threats. Matrix had no choice. “I’m sorry, Goto,” he said to his friend. Goto had too much information, about Matrix and AndrAIa, and about Bob and Mainframe. He would give all of that information to Daemon and the Guardians. And that would just make it more difficult to fight them. The Guardians would know their weaknesses. He couldn’t allow Goto to take that to his masters.

But Goto simply shook his head, even as he seemed to recognize Matrix’s intent. “It seems you won’t do this the easy way. That’s the Matrix I knew. Just remember, we tried to bring you the Word peacefully. But now...” He stared straight into Matrix’s eyes. “The Word is coming, Matrix. And the Word is Daemon.” And with that, an electric blue cube shot down from above them, enveloping Goto. Matrix had to shield his eyes from the brightness of the cube and light. As quickly as it had appeared, it was gone, and Goto with it.

For several long moments, Matrix stared at the space that Goto had been in. It wasn’t long, however, before he realized all the implications that came with the threat of Daemon. They had let her looming threat fade from their thoughts while they’d dealt with Megabyte and repairing the system, but now... They had to do something about her, and they couldn’t afford to simply ignore the threat that she posed. He had to get to the Principal Office, warn Bob and Dot about all of this. They were about to go back to war.

And Matrix, much as he hated himself for it, was looking forward to it.


End file.
